"The Voluntary State" may be my favorite of Christopher's stories. It's now up on Sci-Fiction. Go forth and read. (You may want to print it out, as it's a fairly long story. But so, so good.) The opening paragraph:

Soma had parked his car in the trailhead lot above Governor's Beach. A safe place, usually, checked regularly by the Tennessee Highway Patrol and surrounded on three sides by the limestone cliffs that plunged down into the Gulf of Mexico.

worm: "Gasoline," Catherine Wheel

thingy/s to check out: Christopher's story!

namecheck: Soma-With-The-Paintbox-In-Printer's-Alley